The next morning, I woke up sore from yesterday’s swim. I climbed out of bed and put on my suit. I sleepily stumbled to the kitchen and got a bowl of cereal. It was stale of course, but it was alright. I walked to the television room and peered in and didn’t see any sign of Adam. I yawned and walked to the lab and looked through the windows in the door, still no Adam. This was very unlike him; he usually greeted me in the kitchen.
Puzzled, I walked back to the television room and slumped in front of the T.V. There were reruns of old Spongebob episodes, which I remembered was my grandmother’s favorite show. I sat and watched the episode about a place called “Rock Bottom”. I started dozing off in the middle of the episode when Adam finally walked in.
“Noomi, I didn’t know you were fond of that show.”
“Hm? Oh… That! Yes, it was my grandmother’s favorite show. She always talked about it when I was a child.”
“Dr. Matthew enjoyed it as well. It taught me plenty of things about naivety, though my lessons often fell on deaf ears in the earlier stages of my development.”
Adam sat next to me on the couch and watched the rest of the episode with me.
“Noomi, should we work on the machine today?”
“No, it can wait until tomorrow. I really am worn out with almost that straight week of working on it. How did Dr. Matthew manage all that time here?”
“Oh we did many things. Watched movies, played board games, took walks… Often times, though, our days would be filled with Dr. Matthew teaching me new things about Earth. Although I have never been there, I do know quite a lot about it.”
“Adam, I’ve been meaning to ask you something.”
“What is it?”
“I’ve been wondering if it is possible to go back to my old campsite. I left a tent there and some spare clothes. Do you think we could go there?”
“Of course, Noomi. We should wait until after the heat breaks this afternoon, though. It could be dangerous out there, what with the heat and traveling a long distance.”
We spent the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon watching Spongebob. When it was close to sunset, we went to the surface to begin walking. The journey was quiet and a slight wind began to pick up over the valley. It started to get cooler as we got closer.
We reached my old camp pretty easily and Adam gathered up what little I had left behind.
“Wait. Let’s rest a bit.”
“Okay Adam.”
We sat on the ground and looked up at the sky.
“Adam, did you ever learn about the solar system?”
“Of course. It was part of my basic studies. You know, Dr. Matthew planned on going back to Earth at some point, and he needed someone to be able to know where we were going.”
It was funny to hear him say that they were planning on going to Earth, what was there for them to go back to? Well, nothing now, but if they had even gotten close to Earth, they would have been shot down.
“Do you see that over there, Noomi?”
“Where?”
Adam pointed into the sky at one of Menoetius’ moons. It was stunningly white, like the moon of Earth. It shocked me sometimes how similar Menoetius and Earth were.
“It’s beautiful, Adam.”
“Yes, and I think you are just as beautiful as that moon.”
At this I blushed. He was a robot. He was not a human, he could not love me. Or could he? Could I love him? Could I have feelings about a robot, is that possible?
“Adam… I don’t know… If you understand, really…”
“Oh, I understand. I really do. We sit and watch these movies all day, and I see what humans consider to be beauty, or love, or feelings. I think I know now, that I have them for you.”
“Adam, please, we’ve known each other for a week.”
“That was more than enough for most of the romances in the movies, and in the histories. Even Dr. Matthew knew his wife for much less time, and they were in such a deep love.”
I sighed and just sat and enjoyed the night sky. I was too confused to really understand what I was feeling, or what Adam was feeling. I’d really like for things to be that easy.
“Adam, I think we should head back to the facility. I really am getting tired.”
“Okay, let’s go, then.”
We walked back to the facility in a rather solemn spirit. I knew I had maybe offended Adam, but I couldn’t even be sure that I was jumping to conclusions. Once we were back to the facility I got out of my suit and climbed into bed. Luckily I wasn’t tortured with any dreams that night.
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